Indeed, on the surface I gleefully chose the large rectangular, but nice
light box, although with no good straps for a cave trip. But it was light
- and no problema. And then, just before finally going through the Main
Gate, the Cameraman brings over his 30-pound camera and puts it in the box.
Yikes - and no chance to pawn it off on anyone else - so that becomes
adventurous. Hours later some kind soul mentions the grueling and cussing
regarding that box and on the way out, I think at the base of the Dig, it's
passed forward and the Cameraman kindly relieves me. Thus, he and I later
shared some very nice beers when I trudged into the restaurant...
Steve Peerman
<gypcaver@comcast
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Subject
[NMCAVER] Comments on "Into the
10/01/2008 12:25 Unknown" program
PM
Hi all! I hope everyone got a chance to watch last night's airing of the
"Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein" segment that had a portion filmed in
Fort Stanton Cave. It was interesting, especially so to those of us that
have been fortunate enough to have been to Snowy River. I have a few
comments that may be of interest, particularly to those who were not
involved with the production.
First, as you view this video, you will see short clips of familiar New
Mexico cavers, including Penny Boston, myself, Kathy Peerman, Mike Bilbo,
Wayne Walker, Jim Cox, Allen Wright, Janice Tucker, & Mike
Dimatteo. Penny was, of course, the focus of the program's "star", John
Bernstein, and most of the footage features conversations between Josh and
Penny. The rest of us were there as sherpas. A good bit of gear -
cameras, lights, audio equipment, tripods, etc. had to be carried into the
cave, and that's what we were there for.
The portion taking place at Fort Stanton Cave is the first part of the
program after the introduction. It ends up being about 6 minutes long and
occurs before the first commercial. It begins with a scene of Josh driving
to the cave. The careful viewer will note that only the last portion of
that scene takes place in the Fort Stanton area. Though the audio appears
to be continuous, the video shows Josh driving in probably two other areas
before ending up at the turn heading into the FSC camping area.
The program then cuts to a scene with Penny putting on her helmet, followed
by some close-ups of some other cavers, and then Josh is shown leaving his
vehicle and greeting Penny, (who now, mysteriously, does not have her
helmet on). These scenes, as were most everything done for this program,
were filmed over and over until they were satisfied with them. Why they
ended up combining them in the particular order they did, is beyond our
purview!
After a cut to some computer graphics and pictures of sinkholes on Mars,
the program then returns to Josh and Penny getting their gear (gloves and
knee pads) on and discussing protective gear. You'll note that this takes
place in the back of Wayne Walker's truck, with Allen Wright's truck quite
prominently shown parked beside it.
Following this the group is shown walking to the cave, with Josh turned to
the side, talking to the camera. He makes a comment about the location
being secret which we (the Sherpas) found quite mystifying, in that Fort
Stanton Cave is well known with lots of prior publicity about the existence
and significance of Snowy River and is adequately managed and gated to
protect the resource. But so be it - on with the show!
There is a short clip of boots and kneepads (mine) followed by the group
dramatically walking over a hill. Well, must of know that there is no hill
to be walked over to get to FSC. What we actually did was walk beyond the
fence gate, over the rise near the cattleguard. The filming angle made it
appear we were coming over a hill, much like a scene from "The Sound of
Music"! Then we're descending the trail into the entrance sink. They
filmed these scenes over and over many times, and we were carrying the
heavy equipment - it was pretty tiring - and we hadn't even started the
real caving trip!
Finally we get into the main cave with a scene showing Josh walking
somewhere in the main corridor. I couldn't identify exactly where this
scene was filmed - perhaps someone else can. The program then cuts to Josh
crawling in the entry passage to Don Sawyer Memorial Hall (if you look
carefully you'll see some of the shoring on the right side of the scene),
then Josh walking in some mud. This was filmed in the area of Conrad's
Branch heading into the Sewer Pipe. They walked back and forth there
several times capturing the audio of the boots sucking the sticky mud. The
rest of the main corridor was not wet enough for these sounds. Though
everything was filmed in sequence, these scenes appear out of sequence,
since next it cuts back to the group arriving and ascending 20
Steps. Penny and Josh have a good conversation going up 20 steps and then
continuing across the top. As with the other scenes, this was filmed
multiple times and the final cut is a combination of many parts of these
shots. The observant viewer will note that the scene ends with the group
again arriving at the base of 20 steps.
Next the program cuts to Penny and Josh changing clothes at Turtle
Junction. What's missing is the trip through Mud Turtle. They spent a
good bit of time filming Josh crawling through some of the tight areas of
Mud Turtle passage, but I guess it didn't come out too well, or there
wasn't time in the program for it. After changing, Josh and Penny head out
onto the Snowy River surface and begin walking upstream. Most of us were
around the corner, downstream, at this point. Wayne remained with the film
crew as advisor. The final portion of the FSC segment shows Penny taking a
sample from the manganese deposit and discussing its significance with
Josh.
The remainder of the program discusses various aspects of the theory that
life could exist on Mars and could have travelled to Earth. Someone else
can judge whether this is the best program on the topic, but our focus, of
course, is on the portion filmed at FSC. I believe, despite the editing
issues, it shows FSC and caving in a pretty good light. There is a pretty
good conservation message, and it doesn't sensationalize the sport.
At the beginning of the program Josh talks about heading into the cave for
a grueling 12 hour trip. It turned out to be that - and more. We started
filming about 7 am and some of us didn't get out of the cave until around
10 pm. The grueling part was for us sherpas. Carrying the equipment in
and out of the cave was pretty hard work. We had 8 sherpas and we could
have used more. But we did it, and they rewarded us with a steak dinner at
the Horseman's Grill in Capitan at 11 pm that night! All in all, an
interesting experience!
Steve Peerman
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away
from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in you sails. Explore. Dream.
Discover." attributed to Mark Twain, but no record exists of his having
written this.
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